Champs Sports on Tuesday announced Kyrie 3 release info via Instagram, and today, Nike officially unveiled the next signature shoe for NBA star Kyrie Irving.
The first colorway to drop — which has been referred to as “Oreo” — has been dubbed “Black Ice” by Nike. The shoe arrives in stores the day after Christmas and will retail for $120 (the same price as Irving’s last sneaker, the Nike Kyrie 2).
Nike Kyrie 3 “Black Ice,” $120; SNKRS
According to the brand, the Kyrie 3 was designed for ballers with stellar agility and speed (such as what Cleveland Cavaliers guard Irving displays on the court), built with responsiveness and traction in mind for quick-cutting players.
“The team at Nike shows me pictures of me on court, and my foot is at an unbelievable angle. I’m crossing over somebody, and my body angle and positioning is so abnormal, even when I look at it,” Irving said in a statement. “I’m kind of amazed, because I’m thinking, ‘All I did was a simple crossover here, but my foot is dang near touching the ground horizontally.’ I want to have technology in this shoe that is fit for those moments. The shoe is lightweight, comfortable and always keeps me locked down.”
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When you pick up the shoe on Monday, you’ll get a technology-advanced Irving silhouette. The shoe boasts updates such as forefoot independent traction pods for improved traction during hard cuts, integrated forefoot band with Flywire cables for lockdown, outsole curvature for transitions to the medial and lateral sides of the shoe, and a heel Zoom Air unit for responsiveness.
Aside from the tech included with the shoe, the Kyrie 3 features personal references to Irving and his family — his “just be you” and “hungry and humble” mottos appear on the tongues (“JBY” and “H+H”), his Roman numeral wrist tattoos on the insoles (a nod to his late mother, Elizabeth), and his daughter Azurie Elizabeth’s name on a small frame around the Zoom Air unit.
